Narrated by Laurice WhiteAudio production by Rikki LaCosteOriginally published in Crossed Genres, August 2014

Every year in January, Cast of Wonders takes the month off to recharge our batteries, plan the year ahead, and highlight some of our favourite episodes. As part of joining the Escape Artists family, this year we’re pulling out all the stops. We’re running 10 staff pick episodes over the month, each one hosted by a different member of the Cast of Wonders crew.

We hope you enjoy audio producer Jeremy Carter’s favorite story from 2015, Makeisha In Time by Rachael K. Jones and narrated by Laurice White. The story originally aired August 30, 2015 as Episode 176.

Makeisha has always been able to bend the fourth dimension, though no one believes her. She has been a soldier, a sheriff, a pilot, a prophet, a poet, a ninja, a nun, a conductor (of trains and symphonies), a cordwainer, a comedian, a carpetbagger, a troubadour, a queen, and a receptionist. She has shot arrows, guns, and cannons. She speaks an extinct Ethiopian dialect with a perfect accent. She knows a recipe for mead that is measured in aurochs horns, and with a katana, she is deadly.

Original Episode 176 notes:Rachael K. Jones grew up in various cities across Europe and North America, picked up (and mostly forgot) six languages, an addiction to running, and a couple degrees. Now she writes speculative fiction in Athens, Georgia, where she lives with her husband. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of venues, including Shimmer, Lightspeed, Accessing the Future, Strange Horizons, EscapePod, Crossed Genres, and Daily Science Fiction. She is an editor, a SFWA member, and a secret android. You can follow her on Twitter and WordPress.

The story is narrated by Laurice White. Laurice is a recent theater graduate and long time theater student, has read stories for Podcastle, Pseudopod, and most recently for John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey on The End is Nigh and The End is Now, the first two volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych.

I agree with this pick completely! Thinking about this story takes me back to where I was during each transition in the story. It wasn't jarring and didn't pull me out of the story at all but I know that I did a mental pause to bring it all together each time she "jumped". Very powerful, that one.